If I had $5,000 to promote Indefinite Life Extension, I would….

“If you were to receive a check in the mail with $5,000 to inform as many people as possible about the desirability and the prospects for indefinite life extension, to get them interested in the people, projects and organizations working directly or indirectly toward indefinite life extension, then how might you spend it?”

This is the question asked by the Movement for Indefinite Life Extension (MILE). At the moment it’s only a hypothetical question, but it certainly forces you to think what exactly could be done with said money that could potentially increase awareness of the movement in which is pushing ILE forward. The more I think about it, the more I come to realize how little $5,000 really is, and yet is just enough to unleash something from the bottom and have it rise to the very top.

So what would I do if I had $5,000 in order to promote ILE to as many people as possible? At first I thought of a digital ad at Times Square, but then came to realize that would cost millions for a single year. So, no to Times Square digital ad. Then I thought about BTC investment and building that $5,000 to something far larger, but given the recent crashes in the already unstable exchange BTC market, that too didn’t seem like a feasible idea. So, no to BTC investment.

After I got done reading the Kindle version of Zoltan Istvan’s sci-fi thriller The Transhumanist Wager for a second time, it then finally hit me: this book, I thought to myself, would be perfect for an anime adaptation!

I’m a huge fan of sci-fi anime movies and TV shows. My absolute favorite being Ghosts in the Shell, both movies and TV series. Alongside that is a very large market of sci-fi anime – not to mention the growing re-emergence of Cyberpunk culture, which is arguably fueled by sci-fi anime adoration.

And when I read The Transhumanist Wager, I couldn’t help but conceptualize the vast scenery, action pack plots, sci-fi philosophizing, and character development through the lens of an anime movie unraveling before my very eyes!

As someone who knows his way around digital art, I’m certain that I could transform The Transhumanist Wager into an epic sci-fi anime film! But that’s a long-term goal, which would likely require a 2-part film series – SPOILERS: first part ending where Jethro Knights awakens in the hospital after the terrorist bombing which killed his wife Zoe Bach, and second part starting with Jethro re-cooperating weeks later – so instead the $5,000 would be used very wisely to develop a sci-fi anime short of the book – possibly a depiction of the final two chapters, the results of the Transhuman Revolution, at first bad and totalitarian but then emerged, with time, magnificent, democratic, and scientifically/technologically limitless.

I could easily use only $308.67 to purchase the latest Anime Studio Pro 9.5, and then use the rest of the $4,691.33 to provide expenses for anyone – who desires income for their time – in helping with the animation and voice acting, which wouldn’t require many people at all. I, too, have access to people who would be willing to help with animation for little to no money at all.

After this sci-fi anime short is developed, it could then be released free of charge via Vimeo and Youtube, and possibly promoted by great venues of this digital art, like Short of the Week. The credits of the short would give thanks first and foremost to the author of The Transhumanist Wager, Zoltan Istvan, and to MILE for their ongoing efforts in promoting ILE. Alongside it would be the mentioning of all the major movers and shakers of ILE advocacy and research, from scientists to organizations.

The point here would be to paint a very vivid look into what all these scientists and organizations’ research and actions will result in for our near-future if ILE were to be successful.

If enough money were to be saved, even after income expense and software purchase, and with the permission of the author himself of course, I could also transform the entire book into a manga comic book and promote it at nationwide Comic Con conventions (travel expenses would be my own), which brings in hundreds of thousands of people every year. This could be easily done using only $210 for the purchase of Manga Studio 5 EX.

So this is how I would use $5,000 to help promote ILE to as many people as possible. And with the final production of the sci-fi anime short, this would be freely available for everyone to use and distribute however they please under an Attribution 4.0 International Creative Commons copyright license.